At tonight's UFC President Dana White claimed that he felt UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar should now be ranked as the second best pound for pound fighter in the world, behind middle weight champion Anderson Silva.

Dana White: I don't give a shit what anybody else thinks, Frankie is #2

Frankie Edgar survived another first-round onslaught from Gray Maynard on Saturday.

But this time, rather than going the distance for a draw like the two did in January, Edgar got out of the first, controlled the pace of the fight in the second and third, and in the fourth he dropped Maynard with a right and finished him on the ground. One of the best rivalries of the year finally had a finish – with an exclamation point – at UFC 136 in Houston.

Edgar's fourth-round TKO in the lightweight championship main event earned him $75,000 for Knockout of the Night – the night's only KO stoppage. Joining him with $75,000 bonuses were Joe Lauzon for Submission of the Night and Nam Phan and Leonard Garcia for Fight of the Night.

It was like deja vu for Edgar and Maynard in the first round. Just like their second fight at UFC 125 on Jan. 1, Maynard dominated the first, dropping Edgar with big shots on the feet. In January, it was a decisive 10-8 round for Maynard that Edgar had to come back from. On Saturday, just one just, Doug Crosby, gave a 10-8 to Maynard, while the other two scored it a standard 10-9.

Still, Edgar had to go into rally mode with his face bloodied to start the second round. Maynard was decidedly more cautious in the second and third rounds, both of which saw Edgar controlling the tempo and landing decent shots on the feet. But deep in the fourth round, Edgar landed a right uppercut that stunned Maynard, followed it with several more rights on the feet that put Maynard on the canvas, and then finished with several big shots on the ground.

The end came at 3:54 of the fourth, and Maynard retained his lightweight title. It also gave him a win over Maynard in his third try. In the pair's first fight, in April 2008, Maynard won a unanimous decision. After Edgar won the lightweight title from BJ Penn and defended it in their rematch, he defended it against Maynard at UFC 125 – and the two fought to a rare title match draw. Finally with some closure, Edgar's next opponent will be just his third in more than two years after a steady diet of Penn and Maynard the last four fights.

Lauzon's Submission of the Night was also the card's biggest upset. It came just 47 seconds into the first round against Melvin Guillard, who was riding a five-fight winning streak and came into the fight a more than 5-to-1 favorite. Guillard came out bouncing around and looking to land big shots, but a left from Lauzon stunned Guillard, and Lauzon pounced, quickly took Guillard's back and sank in a fight-ending rear naked choke.

Amazingly, Lauzon now has won six straight fight night bonus awards and seven in his last eight fights. He has four submission bonuses and three Fight of the Night awards in that stretch. He also won Submission of the Night in June, a first-round kimura against Curt Warburton.

Lauzon's only competition for the Submission of the Night award came from Chael Sonnen, whose second-round arm triangle choke of Brian Stann probably earned him another shot at middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Sonnen called Silva out after the fight and said that he wants to up the stakes. Sonnen proposed that if he wins and takes the middleweight title, which he nearly did in August 2010, Silva should have to leave the 185-pound division. And if Sonnen loses, he said he will leave the UFC forever.

At the post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White said it was tough to choose between Lauzon and Sonnen for Submission of the Night, but he ultimately gave it to Lauzon because Lauzon was such a heavy underdog and he rocked the favorite so quickly in the first round.

The Fight of the Night may had checks written for it the day it was announced. Phan and Garcia fought to a controversial split decision win for Garcia at the TUF 12 Finale in December. A rematch was booked for March, but Phan was injured. And when Phan's original UFC 136 opponent, Matt Grice (who replaced Josh Grispi) was forced out, Garcia stepped in.

In what amounted to a continuation of their first fight, Phan and Garcia again had moments of a backyard brawl. But Phan was more accurate and controlled the pace in the first two rounds, landing more consistently. Garcia may have been on his way to a possible 10-8 third round, but Phan did enough to stay in the round and won a 29-28 unanimous decision.

Both Phan-Garcia fights have been Fight of the Night winners, and while Phan said after the fight he doesn't want to do No. 3, Garcia said if the fight could be in Houston, in his native Texas, he'd gladly do a trilogy fight.

Consider Chael Sonnen's silence broken.

After a pre-UFC 136 buildup largely void of any of Sonnen's famed trashtalking and epic rants, the top middleweight contender wasted little time in further alienating any Brazilian fans he may have had by proclaiming himself the UFC's true middleweight champion and offering Anderson Silva a second crack at the title.

Oh yeah, and he called Vitor Belfort a fool and ordered "The Phenom" to carry his luggage to the airport.

"I am the middleweight champion," Sonnen proclaimed at Saturday night's post-UFC 136 press conference. "I defended my championship tonight for the first time, and I am willing to give Anderson a shot at the true belt, the linear belt, the people's belt for the best damn middleweight there's ever been."

They were bold words from the man who had earlier dispatched of Brian Stann via second-round submission. Of course, Sonnen was just as bold while still inside the octagon, wowing the crowd at Houston's Toyota Center by challenging the man everyone else in the world recognizes as the UFC champ, Silva, to a rematch of their epic UFC 117 clash and promising to retire if he lost.

Silva remained rather stoic at cageside while on camera, and Sonnen chastised him for not reacting.

"As far as Anderson goes, we're playing for keeps this time," Sonnen said. "I've had it with this guy. He's probably had it with me, so let's just figure this thing out once and for all. You heard what I said, and my word is good.

"I'd of … shoved that microphone up his ass if he would have said that to me. You saw what he did. He sat there, and it was a good move."

UFC president Dana White, who couldn't help but laugh at some of Sonnen's characteristically outlandish statements, did admit that pitting the two back together would probably make sense.

"I think that some of the stuff he said has got Anderson fired up and wanting to do this fight," White said. "It sounds like a great idea. We'll see what happens.

"I think people and Anderson both want this Chael Sonnen fight."

White had previously said that Dan Henderson could potentially leap in front of Sonnen should he defeat Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 139. That led Belfort to proclaim he'd like to face the winner of Saturday night's Sonnen-Stann contest. With that scenario no longer appearing likely, Sonnen took the shot to fire a few salvos in Belfort's direction.

"I forgive Vitor; he's a fool," Sonnen said. "He knows not what he says. You can't hold a fool accountable because he got a little stupid in the media one time.

"First off, if my name comes out of his mouth again, I will bury him where he stands. Second off, tell Vitor to meet me at the hotel in 30 minutes because daddy's got a plane to catch and I'm summoning him to carry my luggage."

In the cage after his UFC 136 win, Sonnen pegged Me die weekend as the date he'd like to face Silva for a second time. White said the UFC is planning a Las Vegas date for that weekend (Feb. 4), but whether or not Silva-Sonnen II takes place then depends on numerous factors, including the condition of Silva's lingering shoulder bursitis.

But whenever it happens, Sonnen's impressive performance and jaw-dropping post-fight rant seem to guarantee another memorable outing.

"I'm after 12 pounds of gold, and as far as I'm concerned, that belt is worth nothing more than a piece of tin when it's around [Silva's] waist," Sonnen said. "I am the true middleweight champion."

HOUSTON – After hosting a another successful show in the Lone Star State, the UFC could return to Texas with an even bigger event.

It fact, the state could host the UFC's next major stadium show.

And following his impressive victory over Brian Stann at Saturday's UFC 136 event at Houston's Toyota Center, Chael Sonnen could get his long-awaited rematch in the show's headliner.

White said he currently has no plans for a next stadium show; the first, of course, took back in April when a UFC and North American record 55,724 attendees packed Toronto's Rogers Centre. But should a second one be put together, Dallas' 110,000-seat Cowboys Stadium could be the venue.

"We've been talking to (Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones for a while about doing a fight there," White said. "It's just got to be the right fight. We're definitely going there. It's just a matter of when."

So how does he know when the timing is right? After all, White, who made a triumphant return to Brazil back in August, greatly underestimated the demand in the country and saw 14,000 seats sell out in just 74 minutes. Next year, UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said the Convention Center of Manaus (one of many "sambadromes" located throughout Brazil) – an outdoor venue that can hold up to 100,000 fans – could be the next host site.

"It's a gut (thing)," White said. "We kind of go with our gut, and we've been right. We knew Toronto was going to be big, so we went for the big stadium there. We [expletive] Brazil up last time we went there. We didn't nail that one, but we won't make that mistake twice."

As for Dallas, White said it's only a matter of time.

"It's like all these prestigious arenas you go to around the world," he said. "We've been to Royal Albert Hall. We've been to the O2 Arena in London. You name the arena, we've been there. It's a big deal for us to go to Dallas [Cowboys] Stadium and put on a big event there. ... We want to do that big stadium (show)."

Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields headlined the first stadium show at UFC 129. So what could headline the Dallas show?

Following his victory over Stann, Sonnen – who returned from a 14-month layoff – solidified his No. 1 contender's status and immediately called out UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. The fighters first met at UFC 117, where Sonnen dominated four rounds before Silva secured a fifth-round submission victory.

Since then, the outspoken Sonnen has claimed to be the UFC's true champ, and Saturday's post-fight speech was used solely to call out Silva.

Could Dallas host the rematch?

"I think it could," White said. "I think we could do a big, big venue for that one."